One person disagreed—the coach whose team had swept the competition. Dutch speed skating coach Jillert Anema was unequivocal when interviewed about the U.S. suits and his team's secret to success:
"We have found something that makes the suit very fast. It's the man in the suit."
The statement appeared as a slap in the face to the American athletes, and indeed Anema went on to discuss the failures of American sports culture to develop better competitors. But adding insult to that injury, Under Armour cited that American athletes had also failed to win when wearing different suits. But while the company might have believed it was defending its brand at the expense of the athletes, their argument begs an uncomfortable question—do these suits really make a difference?
The answer is "not really."
To be completely accurate, it depends on the sport and the design methodology in the suit. This is where the flap over the swimsuits in 2009 becomes very important. In fact, scientific research suggests that both the claims of the swimsuit manufacturers and FINA's response were highly exaggerated. Speedo claimed that their suits reduced drag with fabric that emulated the texture of a shark's skin. However, one of the world's preeminent swimming researchers, Huub Toussaint, found in tests that this drag reduction was statistically insignificant.
While the difference between a full-length suit and a traditional swim short or brief might make a crucial difference in world-class competition, the result would still only be decided by a fraction of a second. Toussaint proposed that more important was that the material and design of the suits allowed pockets of air to be trapped against the athletes' bodies, thereby giving them added buoyancy.
More: What You Need to Know About Wetsuits
Suits also have a relative benefit with regard to speed skating. Athletes going around the ice can reach speeds in excess of 30mph, certainly enough to qualify for aerodynamic consideration. However, there are several limitations on a suit trying to give them an advantage. To begin with, they constantly change their body's orientation and position throughout a race, especially from the hips down. That much movement makes them an extraordinarily chaotic structure to model. Even a supersonic aircraft has fewer moving parts and flexible surfaces than a human being. A jet can be optimized for speed because its shape remains mostly constant. A human doesn't.
While speed is the biggest factor in aerodynamic concerns, much like the runners and cyclists, there's only so much you can do about air resistance. A suit might be able to make a difference of a couple of tenths of a second, but no more. If everyone is wearing similarly designed garments, the difference is even less. In the end, the difference between "good" and "highly advanced" clothes are negligible for the common athlete.
More: How to Add Speed to Your Swim and Bike Workouts
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